UK doctors filmed agreeing to perform illegal sex-selection abortions

Doctors at British clinics have been secretly filmed agreeing to terminate foetuses purely because they are either male or female. Clinicians admitted they were prepared to falsify paperwork to arrange the abortions even though it is illegal to conduct such “sex-selection” procedures.

[…]The disclosures will add to growing concerns about the regulation of abortion clinics and the apparent ability of women to secure terminations “on demand”.

The Daily Telegraph carried out an investigation into sex-selection abortions after concerns were raised that the procedures were becoming increasingly common for cultural and social reasons.

[…]Acting on specific information, undercover reporters accompanied pregnant women to nine clinics in different parts of the country. In three instances doctors were recorded offering to arrange terminations after being told the mother-to-be did not want to go ahead with the pregnancy because of the sex of the unborn child.

One consultant, Prabha Sivaraman, who works for both private clinics and NHS hospitals in Manchester, was filmed telling a pregnant woman who said she wanted to abort a female foetus: “I don’t ask questions. If you want a termination, you want a termination”.

[…]Miss Sivaraman, who works for Pall Mall Medical in Manchester and is an obstetrician and gynaecologist at North Manchester General Hospital, said the cost of the termination would be :£200 or :£300, on top of the :£500 already paid to the clinic for the consultation.

[…]The doctor booked the pregnant woman in for a termination the following week despite the reason for the abortion being clearly explained.

Another consultant, Claudine Domoney, who works with 132 Healthwise clinic in Harley Street, central London, agreed to arrange for a woman to abort a boy after being told that she and her husband already had a son from his first marriage. The practice is known as “family balancing”.

In a consultation room in the Chelsea and Westminster hospital, the woman, who was about 18 weeks pregnant, explained her reasons for the termination “It’s a boy, and that’s the reason, we don’t want to have a second boy.”

“It’s obviously taken a little bit of time to decide this?” asked Miss Domoney, in reference to the fact that the woman was 18 weeks pregnant.

The consultant was still happy to proceed but explained that as she was going away she would be unable to perform the procedure, so she telephoned a colleague to see if he could fit the pregnant woman in for the following week. “He is OK for Tuesday”, said Miss Domoney when she returned.

Here’s a second article about this story in the: UK Telegraph. It talks about a doctor who hears from the customer that her real reason for the abortion is because the unborn child is female. The doctor tells her that he can’t use that as the reason. The customer then offers a different reason and then the doctor writes that reason down and agrees to do the abortion.

It seems to me that sex-selection abortion is perfectly legal in the UK. You just don’t tell the doctor what your real reason is, and they do the abortion anyway. It may sound good to pro-abortion people to be able to say that they oppose sex-selection abortions, but they really don’t. They know perfectly well that people who want sex-selection abortions can get them right away so long as they don’t tell the real reason why they want it. Even if the customer does tell the real reason, doctors can apparently work around it by asking for another reason. After all, they are getting paid to perform the procedure.

It’s important for conservatives to understand that socialized medicine is not just about costs, it’s about morality. When government is able to confiscate your money through taxes, it means that they can do whatever they want with it, regardless of what you want. When there is no free exchange of between you and a producer, you don’t get to choose what they will do with your money. Some of the things that a socialized health care system does are things that you would never spend your money yourself. It’s not just sex-selection abortions – the NHS also does breast implants, sex changes and a host of other things that have nothing to do with providing health care. Don’t let the government decide – keep your money in your pocket.